Mind blown. What the hell, dudes?

https://www.vox.com/politics/380132/gender-gap-election-harris-trump

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-racist-nyc-rally-was-vile-it-was-also-political-suicide/

Trump’s people:

«One speaker said that Harris was managed by “pimp handlers” and said of Democrats that “we need to slaughter these other people.” Disgraced and destitute former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, as did several others, that Democrats were behind attempts to kill Donald Trump. Another speaker called Harris “the devil” and “the antichrist.”

Former Trump aide Stephen Miller, as is his habit, went directly for the Nazi playbook saying, “America is for Americans and Americans only.” Tucker Carlson came out to offer more racist slurs about Harris.»

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/digital-nomads-criticism-locals-exploitation

«Some people —wealthy and mostly white—glide through borders, moving from place to place without ever encountering the slightest friction, while others are left to drown in the Mediterranean. This is not the result of a hypocritical worldview but an entirely consistent one which ascribes people value only according to their earning potential.»

😲

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-26-2024

At Bright Penny Brewing in Mebane, NC, rewarding myself after an afternoon of canvassing. Sometimes canvassing is good and uplifting, when you run into someone happy to see you (very uplifting, when we knock on your door, be happy and encouraging), frequently it’s a bit harder when you run into folks who just don’t want to be bothered (which, I guess, is the definition of the low-propensity voter, which is why we’re out here), and sometimes you run into a Trump supporter or someone else that thinks now is the right time to tee off on someone (you).

Actually, I guess this is what retail service is like, to some extent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/25/post-columnist-no-endorsement-2024-trump-harris/

«By 17 Post Opinions columnists»

«An independent newspaper might someday choose to back away from making presidential endorsements. But this isn’t the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution.»

Bam.

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/nx-s1-5165353/washington-post-presidential-endorsement-trump-harris

«Former Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, who led the newsroom to acclaim during Trump’s presidency, denounced the decision starkly.

“This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty,” Baron said in a statement to NPR.»

I see what you did there, Martin.

And, yes, you are correct. Democracy dies in darkness.

https://www.propublica.org/article/evicore-health-insurance-denials-cigna-unitedhealthcare-aetna-prior-authorizations

«The system also runs in reverse. When doctors or employer health plans complain about high rejection rates, insurance companies can ask EviCore to back off. The company simply adjusts its algorithm to approve more prior authorization requests.

Dave Jones, a former California insurance commissioner and now director of the climate risk initiative at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, said arbitrarily increasing or decreasing manual reviews didn’t appear to violate any standards. Still, he questioned whether a payment structure or contract for EviCore based on reducing claims payments or authorizations would result in objective and thorough evaluations of prior authorization requests, as required by law.

“That to me is troubling,” Jones said. “It suggests that the claim settlement procedure is not objective, right?” He added, “It calls into question everything that’s occurring.”»

(a) Physicians need to speak up more loudly about inappropriate denials, and (b) yeah, that’s troubling. One hopes the right requests are being approved and denied, but it sounds like a crap shoot, really.

https://abcnews.go.com/538/video/vote-matters-2024-114864346

I normally hate video, but…

Bush v. Gore decided by 500 votes.

Va. legislature decided by a coin toss, basically, because the vote was exactly tied.

Every vote does indeed count.

https://ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics/mifepristone-lawsuit-republican-ags-more-pregnant-teens/

I know this is old news by now, but:

«“Remote dispensing of abortion drugs by mail, common carrier, and interactive computer service is depressing expected birth rates for teenaged mothers in Plaintiff States,” the attorneys allege in the complaint, which was filed before forced birth enthusiast Judge Matt Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas’s Amarillo Division. They claim that decreased births constitute “a sovereign injury to the state in itself,” and causes downstream injuries like “losing a seat in Congress or qualifying for less federal funding if their populations are reduced.” In other words, uteri are state slush funds, and girls owe the state reproduction once they are capable of it.

States exist to serve people, not the other way around. But in order for courts to hear a case, would-be plaintiffs need to show that they experienced an actual injury that the party they’re suing caused, and that a court can fix. A personal dislike of somebody else taking medicine is not a legitimate grievance. So the states are trying to show that they are entitled to the population growth and accompanying funds that pregnant minors would produce, and the FDA is getting in the way of that.

…

The complaint also says that each of the states is “the legal parent or guardian of many minor girls of reproductive age”—a reference to girls in state custody, like foster care or juvenile detention. For those girls, they argue, the state is a stand-in for parents. And as parents, they claim, they have a right to consent to their children’s medical care, which is apparently nullified if teen girls in foster care can “obtain abortion drugs online by mail all on their own.” Under the state’s theory, it can separate children from their actual parents, declare itself their father now, and deem a daughter’s pregnancy her daddy’s prerogative.

Bailey, Kobach, and Labrador’s [the state Attorneys General, one of whom is Kris Kobach, in case that’s a recognizable name] argument treats teenagers as breeding stock. The complaint is shocking in its brazenness. But it is a natural outgrowth of the conservative legal movement’s efforts to subordinate women: Girls choosing not to give birth is wrong, and men can go to court to set it right.»